All posts tagged ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’

It’s funny that back in the day, the monster-fighting sleuths on Buffy the Vampire Slayer liked to refer to themselves as “the Scooby gang,” because the current incarnation of the seminal talking-dog-and-teenagers-solving-mysteries animated series has more in common with Joss Whedon’s great geek drama than just two degrees of separation via Sarah Michelle Gellar.

Okay, let me explain that. Matthew Lillard, who played Shaggy in the live action Scooby-Doo movies with Gellar as Daphne, is now the official voice of Shaggy on the animated series. To add to that, Linda Cardellini, who played Velma in the movies, plays a different character (nicknamed “Hot Dog Water”) who was a sorta-baddie in Season One, and is now Velma’s friend and the sixth wheel of the Mystery Inc. team — not unlike Tara on Buffy. I know, it’s complicated — which is perhaps the most amazing thing about Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated: It’s wonderfully complicated.

It’s a half-hour animated series with multi-season meta-plots. There’s something going on with pieces of an ancient artifact that may lead to a treasure. And a former teen sleuth with mixed motives, who manipulates people. And the bad guys from previous episodes aren’t always really bad, and are seeking redemption. And Shaggy and Velma dated, but broke up. And so did Fred and Daphne, but Fred can’t get over her, even when she’s going out with a Taylor Lautner clone.

Plus, the actors: Holy carp! Let’s get past the fact that Frank Welker, whose first acting job was doing Fred on the original Scooby-Doo, still does him perfectly (as well as Scooby). Patrick Warburton voices the sheriff of their home town, Crystal Cove. And this season, we’ve already had Mark Hamill, Vivica A. Fox, and Lewis Black in guest roles, with many more to look forward to.

And two vitally important points: first, all the monsters are fake, as it should be in the Scoobyverse; second, who the baddie turns out to be at the end isn’t always as easy to peg as it was in the original series. These writers grok the Scoobyverse and while they are always faithful to its spirit, they’ve added huge amounts of texture and richness.

So yeah, call me crazy, but I see the current incarnation of the Scooby-Doo franchise as the true inheritor of the Buffy crown, which in many ways owes a lot to the original Scooby. One might suggest that this has all happened before, and will all happen again. But that’s a whole different franchise.

Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated is airing every single freaking weekday at 2pm on Cartoon Network for the next couple weeks. Tune in, or record them and watch it all together. If you feel at all nostalgic about the original Scooby, and loved Buffy, this show will blow your mind.

It had to happen. After many upbeat episodes of Geek & Sundry’s TableTop, a dark cloud cast its shadow over the gaming table this week. The good news is that it results in some very funny moments as host Wil Wheaton and his friends, Michele Boyd, Amber Benson, and Meghan Camarena play the really depressing (yet ridiculously fun) card game, Gloom.

In the game, players try to make horrible things happen to their characters before ultimately causing them to die. It’s a race for negative points, but other players can cause good things to happen to competitors’ characters, which is bad, but the results are often hilarious.

While Wil’s win last week was a wee bit wavering, in Gloom, our geek guy gets the good fortune to go for gold again. Will Wil walk away with it or will success sidestep our superstar once more? There’s only one way to find out, watch this week’s episode of TableTop!

Between The Cabin in the Woods and The Avengers, you might feel like you’re swimming in Whedon lately. (And if you’ve read my GeekMom posts, you know I’m a fan of that pool!) But if you can’t get enough Whedon, there’s a little more to love in Joss Whedon: The Complete Companion.

In the case of The Cabin in the Woods, the new horror movie send-up, you might say it’s a Whedon half-breed. The man behind Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Firefly, Dollhouse and Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog, as well as the upcoming The Avengers, co-wrote and produced Cabin. But Whedon’s protégé, Drew Goddard, co-wrote the script with Whedon and makes his directorial debut with this homage to and/or parody of the kids-in-the-woods slasher genre, which stars Anna Hutchison, Chris Hemsworth (Cabin was shot before he was seen in Thor), Jesse Williams, Kristen Connolly, Fran Kranz, Richard Jenkins and Bradley Whitford.

So you might say The Cabin in the Woods, which opens Friday in theaters nationwide, has only half its foot in the Whedonverse. But fans, don’t be too worried. Goddard, a self-described “world’s biggest Joss Whedon fan,” has written for and produced shows such as Buffy, Dollhouse and Angel, not to mention Alias and Lost. He also wrote the screenplay for Cloverfield.

Note the Rubik's Cube design. This is more than your typical teens-in-the-woods slasher movie.

I asked Goddard some questions about The Cabin in the Woods, his friendship and working relationship with Whedon, and whether this monster movie was in any way inspired by Dungeons & Dragons. (By the way, Cabin is rated R and fairly gory, so it’s not a good one to bring the young-uns.)

Wired: How far back do you go with Joss? When and where did you meet?

Drew Goddard:[speaking by telephone from Minneapolis] I guess it goes back around 10 years now. My first job as a writer was that he hired me as staff writer on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. It’s really where my formative years in learning the craft and learning his business came from, under his tutelage. I started as the world’s biggest Joss Whedon fan. When I first saw Buffy the Vampire Slayer in college, it was like a bomb went off. It really felt like, “Oh, here’s someone doing the most interesting storytelling that I’ve ever seen in my life. And I have to be a part of it.” It was definitely a dream come true to work for him.

Wired: What was your working relationship like? How did you write the film?

Goddard: We just got along from the beginning. Our relationship evolved over the years. And really, Cabin was just the two of us trying to entertain each other. We were just two guys talking about how much they loved horror films and wanting to make one of their own. That’s really what Cabin was. We didn’t pitch it. We just sat and wrote the movie we wanted to watch. And it sort of just sprung from there.

There are few things true geeks like more than a genuine debate about who or what is the best of something. Who’s the best Star Trek captain? (Kirk) Who’s the best Doctor? (David Tennant) So it’s really no surprise that when Once Upon a Time and Grimm, two very similar shows, debuted this fall people immediately started to argue over which was better and which would manage to escape cancellation.

I started off firmly in the Grimm camp. It’s so reminiscent of Buffy that it felt a bit like going back to a high school reunion. Everyone is the same, but slightly different. In this case, the effects were a bit better but they still had that somewhat cheesy, not quite scary look of the Buffy baddies. It made me want to say “Awww!” every time a demon showed his true colors.

Today marks the 32nd anniversary of the birth of the incredibly talented geek and latter-day geek icon known as Felicia Day. Day first became known to the geek community for her recurring role as Vi in the final season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and since then has beamed up to geek stardom via her role as Penny in Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog and, especially, for her truly awesome web series The Guild.

All of us at GeekDad are huge Felicia Day fans, and wish her the very happiest of birthdays! We also feel that, as geeks, it behooves us to mention that Day’s first name means “happiness,” so that means her name is two-thirds of the phrase “happy birthday.” Sort of.

Please join us in wishing Ms. Day a happy, geeky birthday, and many more! Leave birthday greetings in a comment if you’re so inclined. And if you are yet untouched by The Guild, you owe it to yourself to remedy the situation.

Note: A version of this article was published on GeekDad on June 28, 2010.

Today is the 47th birthday of Joss Whedon, geek icon extraordinaire. Without Whedon, the world of geekdom would have had no Buffy the Vampire Slayer, no Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog, and no Firefly/Serenity. The mere fact that Firefly famously had only one incompletely broadcast series on TV, yet acquired such a following that a major studio was willing to produce a feature film based on it three years later, is testament to the kind of imagination, writing, and directing talents Whedon possesses. It’s worth noting, too, that without those talents Pixar might not have the stellar position in the world of animation it possesses, as Whedon co-wrote Pixar’s first feature film — I refer to Toy Story, of course — which was widely praised for the quality of its story and dialogue.

Whedon’s talents are at this very moment being put to a much more visible test, as he works on directing The Avengers from a screenplay he wrote. Considering how mainstream comic book superhero movies have recently become, this is far and away the highest-profile project Whedon has ever undertaken, and I think it’s safe to say most geeks have a great deal more confidence that the movie will be good than they would have had with pretty much any other director/screenwriter you can name.

Whedon isn’t perfect — one look at Dollhouse will tell you that, although the series did have some great moments — but for me, at least, his name on a project automatically gives it a great deal of credibility and chance for success.

So please join all of us at GeekDad in wishing Joss Whedon a very happy birthday, and many more to come!

Ok, aside from making you feel old, Buffy’s birthday this year also marks the release of Buffy the Vampire Slayer #40 (pictured here, with my crudely added party hats), the final issue of Season 8. While I haven’t followed all of Season 8—admittedly, I have some of Season 7 on DVD left to watch—I find it an interesting way to continue a television show after it’s no longer on TV. (Caprica and SGU, are you listening?)

Last week, we had Twilight Week over at GeekMom and that prompted a discussion with a friend about whether the relationship between Edward and Bella was really that much different than the relationship between Buffy and Angel in Buffy The Vampire Slayer Season One.

Buffy is followed around by a mysterious, hot guy with special powers. He won’t tell her who he is but he saves her life now and again and he’s completely in love with her. Buffy is a high school student, not of age, he’s a vampire at least two hundred years old. And he tries to leave her several times because he’s not good enough for her.

The difference, of course, is in the execution and the subtle details that make genre fans revere Buffy and (mostly) hate Twilight.

But the discussion sent me to read the Twilight story arc of Dark Horse Comics Buffy The Vampire series. The storyline is obviously named after Twilight, as there are several snarky remarks included, and it does follow the plot line of soul mates and what happens when the wish for true love comes true. (I’ll give you a hint: Joss Whedon isn’t known for happy couples.)

Summary:

When season eight began in the comics, Buffy had gathered an army of slayers together to battle demons. Eventually, she and her slayer army were opposed by a demon army led by a mysterious masked man known only as Twilight. (Reference to a sparkly vampire obviously intended.)

Fans have a great time attending big cons like San Diego Comic Con but often what goes on behind the scenes is as interesting as what is being presented to the public.

Take writer and geek mom Jackie Kessler, who ended up writing a Buffy: The Vampire Slayer story after going to a con.

“I’d met Dark Horse editor Scott Allie at Dragon*Con, and I’d offered to give him one of my books to read. He wanted something dark and not superhero, so I gave him Hell’s Belles, (sex, strippers and demons–what’s not to like?). A month later, I received author copies of the second book in that series, The Road to Hell, and I did a Twitter giveaway to the first ten people who retweeted. Scott was number two. When I emailed to confirm his address, he asked if I’d like to write a Buffyverse short comic for MySpace Dark Horse Presents. After a moment of pinching myself, I said sure. So there you go: I got the offer because Scott liked what he’d read of Hell’s Belles.”

You can’t find “Carpe Noctem” online any long but Kessler said it will be re-printed in an upcoming “Dark Horse Presents” trade paperback collection.

Images from "Carpe Noctum" by Kessler

When I heard this story via a mutual friend, I asked Kessler if I could also check out her books. Since I’m more of a superhero reader than a demon reader, I picked Black & White and Shades of Grey, which are co-written by Caitlin Kittredge. The books feature two young woman as the main characters so I also hoped they might appeal to the eldest daughter.

Superheroes are such a visual medium that they’re hard to translate to prose so I was a skeptic before I started reading the books. But by chapter three of the first book, I was hooked, and I stayed up late to finish the second novel.